When previously eviscerated, whole, oven-ready birds are prepared at the poultry processing plant and are to be shipped to the market, some of the birds are transported, stored, and displayed for sale without being frozen. These "fresh" birds are ready for cooking by the purchaser or by the retail store without the inconvenience or time delay involved in thawing a frozen bird. However, in many instances the purchaser wishes to receive the whole birds in a frozen condition or, in some cases, the purchaser will freeze the birds received from the processing plant so as to preserve the birds for later use and sale.
When the previously eviscerated oven-ready whole bird carcasses are frozen, there is a likelihood that the shapes of the birds will be changed, usually somewhat collapsed from their usual anatomical shapes, such as the neck of the bird bent and the visceral cavity of the bird somewhat collapsed or deformed. When the frozen bird is retrieved from cold storage to be placed in an oven, etc., it is very difficult to insert a spit or skewer through the bird so as to impale the bird and support the bird during cooking. The skewer could comprise an elongated, thin rod that is to project from the vent opening, through the visceral cavity and through the neck cavity so as to support the bird. In some instances, the bird might be placed with its visceral cavity mounted on a vertically oriented conical skewer for cooking. In either situation, the typical frozen bird is difficult to mount on a skewer. The elongated skewer is likely not to be able to protrude through the neck cavity because the neck of the bird would have been deformed, possibly bent downwardly during freezing and is too rigid to be straightened for receiving a skewer. Likewise, if the bird is to be mounted with its visceral cavity surrounding a vertically oriented conical skewer, the visceral cavity of the bird is likely to have been frozen in a shape that does not match the shape of the conical skewer. As a result, the bird must be thawed before it becomes flexible enough to conform in shape to the skewer or other mount. The thawing process requires a time delay and, therefore, delay in the cooking and other handling processes.
It is to the solution of the above noted deficiencies that this invention is directed.